I want you to turn to my text
this morning in Isaiah chapter 26. Isaiah chapter 26. I tried to preach on this the
other night and I'm going to try it. I've looked at it again
and trying to approach it in just a little bit different way.
In Isaiah chapter 26 and beginning in verse 17 and the remainder
of that chapter. Like as a woman with child that
draweth near the time of her delivery is in pain, and crieth
out in her pain, so we have been in thy sight, O Lord. We have
been with child, we have been in pain, we have, as it were,
brought forth wind. We have not wrought any deliverance
in the earth, neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body, shall they
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust, for thy dew
is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.
Come, thy people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy
doors about thee. Hide thyself, as it were, for
a little while, a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. For behold, the Lord cometh out
of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.
The earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more
cover her slain." The church here is having a problem,
and you see it in verse 17, that she is in pain, and she describes
her pain like a woman that is laboring with child. And I have
no idea what that means. mother that come up to me the
other night after I was looking at this, and she said, none of
you men understand what you're talking about. She said, we mothers
do. And you mothers know what this
is talking about, don't you? You can relate to this. As a
mother that is in child labor, is in pain, until the child be
born. The church is saying that's the
way we felt. That's the way we feel. We're
in pain. And what they were desiring was
spiritual children. They wanted to see men converted
to the Lord. And we can understand that, can't
we? I likened that sometime to Rachel back in the Old Testament
when she told Jacob. She was barren. And her sister
was having children and she had none. And she told her husband,
she said, give me children or I'm going to die. And that's
the way we want to be as a church, isn't it? Wanting spiritual children,
and we have this pain for them, this desire for them to be born,
or we're like Rachel, Lord, if we don't have spiritual children,
we're going to die. And Paul felt that way about
the children of Israel. He said, I have great heaviness
in my heart and continuous sorrow for my brethren according to
the flesh." Heaviness like a woman that is in child. And we know
what His heaviness was about. He said that they might be saved.
They're lost. That they might be saved. And
you know that's what our hearts... And I wish we could have a burden
like that. I wish that our hearts were so pained for people that
we would be like a woman in childbirth. that she has no rest. She can't
think about anything else, can she? I mean, you get just a few
minutes between the contraction and you don't think about planning
a vacation. You don't think about what color
to paint your living room because you're in pain, aren't you? And
that's the way they were feeling. They said, we can't get away
from this burden to see lost people brought to Christ. Brought
in to the fold. Made to know Him and delivered
from their sins. And I wish the Lord would burden
us that way, brothers and sisters, when we go ahead about our work
in this world. I don't care if it's washing
your dishes. I don't care if it's going to the factory. I
don't care if it's out in the garage. These pains hit us. A pain for a dear child. And
say, Lord, have mercy upon my child. For she is possessed with
the devil. Our Lord have mercy upon my neighbor,
for he is dead and trespasses and sins. Or have mercy upon
a spouse, but she don't know God. She don't know the Son of
God. And that's the burden that they
had here in their heart. This burden that lost men and
women might be saved. There's a passage over in Isaiah
chapter 62 that says this. And he is talking about marriage.
And I imagine having children. And the Lord said, I have set
watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace day or night. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silent, give him no rest till he establish, until
he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth. But how can Jerusalem
be a praise in the earth if she is not begetting children? That's
the joy of a young bride and a young bridegroom's home, isn't
it? They have children. They have
children. The church really got down here.
Boy, she is really down in verses 17 and verse 18. And three things
she's down about. And she's discouraged about it. And when we get down and when
we get discouraged, one of the ways you can tell it pretty soon
is going to show in what we say. And you can tell that she's very
down and discouraged because of what she's saying. Look at
these three things right quickly that she's having problems with.
She thinks, first of all, that all her labor is in vain. See what she says in verse 17? Lord, in verse 17, like as a
woman that is with child doth near to the time of her delivery,
is in pain, and crieth out in her pains, and we have been in
thy sight, O Lord, we have been with child, we have been in pain,
but look at this, we have as it were brought forth wind. And that simply means what it
says. That is a modest way of saying that all we perceived
that we have is belly gas. We thought we were with child,
but all we seemingly have is this belly gas. And when we thought
we had contraction, all we did is pass wind and realize we weren't
pregnant at all. Now that's what she said in her
own eyes. She is saying all our labor seemingly is no good. It's just like gas. We're not
having children. It's just like we're passing
gas. And she's beginning to think
this, brothers and sisters, and how many of us have not thought
this? That we're just laboring in the
flesh. That all my labor is just labors
in the flesh. Burdens of my own making. that
I've built a fire and I'm warming by the fire that I've built.
I'm walking by the light that I've regenerated. Haven't we
all thought that? We think that sometimes as individuals
and we think that sometimes as a church. And boy, we get down
when we begin to think that everything we're doing is just in vain. Everything I do seems to amount
to nothing. Do you ever get to feel that
way? Belly gas. That's all it is, just belly
gas. And sometimes when we think this, boy, we can get very discouraged
and we can discourage everybody around us. I know that as we
work and seek to please the Lord and walk by faith, I know that
there is that sense in which we say at the end of the day,
Lord, we're unprofitable serpents. We've just done what was our
duty to do. I realize that. But brothers
and sisters, anything that you do by faith in Jesus Christ,
and you do it with an aim to God's glory, that is not in vain. That doesn't mean you've labored
for nothing. Listen to the Apostle Paul, how
he says in 1 Corinthians 15 and 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. And listen to how he says it
in Hebrews 6, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor
of love which you have shown towards His name, in that you
have ministered to the saints and ministered. And here this
church says, all our labor is nothing but gas. It's just like labor pains, and
it wasn't labor pains at all. Well, that wasn't so, was it?
What we do in faith and love and for God's glory, He won't
forget it. He won't forget it. Sometimes
we give ourselves more credit than we give God as our Father. If I have a child that's obedient
to me, and that child is obeying me, and that child is seeking
to please me, don't you reward that child. Don't you look upon
that child and say, I am pleased with what he's doing. And yet
we think it doesn't matter what a Christian does. All his labor
means nothing. Why, he's not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love. I tell you, brothers and
sisters, he'll never go unrecognized. I'm telling you, he'll know it
in this life and in that life to come. He says, you know what
I remember? I remember when I was sick and
you visited me. I remember when I was hungry
and you fed me. I remember when I was in prison
and you come to me and you minister to me. It's not in vain, is it? But the church of old, boy, she
had got down so low and she said, you know, it's just vain. Our
labor's vain. It means nothing. Well, that's
not so, is it? The second thing here, notice
this about it, sort of along the same line in verse 18, we
have not wrought any deliverance in the earth. We have not wrought
any deliverance, none at all. We have not done anything that
has been profitable and that has helped somebody. You mean
we have gone preaching and praying and seeking for the salvation
and the Lord has not saved one single soul? Nobody! I can't believe that, can you?
Nothing we've done has profited. No deliverance. Nobody's been
encouraged. No dear child of God has been
helped. I can't believe that, can you?
But they got down, see? They got down and got discouraged.
And in Isaiah chapter 53, Isaiah said, Lord, who has believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? And you know really what he's saying? Lord, nobody's
believed me. Nobody's believed me. Well, that wasn't right,
was it? The Lord said, I've got a remnant in every age that believes
me. And if you don't see them, it's
just because you've got your eyes looking down and you've
got your eyes looking at yourself. But that's the way they got.
And thirdly, notice what else they did in here verse 18. He
said, Neither have the inhabitants
of the earth fallen. Neither have the inhabitants
of the world fallen. Now what he's saying is we thought
we were going to convert the world. We had this expectation
that boy in our day, we've got the gospel. We've got the real
gospel. And they did have, didn't they?
And he said, he thought when we begin to present it and preach
it, boy, it just overcome the world. And he said, we've not
done it. Now, there's nothing wrong with
setting your expectations high. I believe the Lord could save
Newcastle. I believe the Lord could subdue
this whole city, don't you? There's nothing wrong with living
in that expectation. Believe in that the Lord can
and will save sinners. But brothers and sisters, let's face reality. If He's not
pleased to subdue a great number of people, let's don't despair
because He doesn't do it. And that's what happened to them.
They believed that He could, but when He didn't do it, they
despaired. And they say, well, it's not
happening. Let's just get discouraged. Let's just get down. Get down
in our hearts. and get down in our mouths. I read after some of the older
commentaries like some of you do, and I was reading Gill, and
it's not only Gill, but it's several of the old commentaries.
They believe that in the latter days there's going to be a great
revival. And I was reading Gill the other day, and he said, and
Matthew Henry said, great multitudes are going to come in in the latter
days. They're going to be brought into the church of Jews and Gentiles.
Well, we must not be in the latter days because I'm not seeing it,
are you? I'm just not seeing it. I hope that's right. But it seems to me like things
are just getting worse and worse. And it seems like that's what
the Bible teaches. In the last days, it's just going
to get worse and worse, deceivers and being deceived, and people
departing from the faith. giving heed to seducing spirit.
I just can't see this large revival. But if I was looking for it,
I would be discouraged. We want to have great expectations,
but you know it needs to be expectations based upon reality of the Scriptures. You'll read in chapter 6, when
Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up, And the Lord touched his lips
and purged his sin from him. And the Lord said, Who will I
send for me? And he said, Here I am, send
me. I know something about being saved. You just forgive me. Let
me go tell it. And the Lord said, Okay, you
go tell it. And he said, Lord, how long do you want me to tell
it? And he said, Until the land be desolate. Not until the land
be all converted, but until the land be desolate. And buddy,
it was going to be desolate. over, I think it's in the 37th
and 38th chapter of Isaiah. King Sennacherib from Assyria
had already come down into the northern kingdom, taken the northern
kingdom. Then he came on down in and took
a lot of the cities at Judea. Judah, he had taken all the cities.
And he had Jerusalem surrounded. The Lord didn't tell the church
in Isaiah's day to go out and confront the world and it's going
to fall before your feet and worship me. He didn't tell them
that. He said some dark days are coming. You just keep on
preaching and you keep on preaching until the land's desolate. Now
that don't seem very encouraging, does it? I used to have an old
friend of mine, he told an illustration about a man hiring poor fellow
to beat on a rock. He had a big rock out in his
backyard and he hired this guy and gave him a sledgehammer and
said, I want you to go beat on that rock. He said, I'll be back
tonight and I'll pay you for beating on the rock. And he said,
if you need a job, I'll give you a job. You can beat that
rock. And he come back that night and the fellow was sitting there
and he was sweating and he was dirty. And he told the fellow, he said,
well, I quit. He said, well, ain't I paying
you? Yeah. Ain't I paying you well enough?
Yeah, you're paying me well enough. He said, why are you quitting?
He said, I can't bust that rock. He said, did I hire you to bust
it or beat on it? That's it, isn't it? The Lord
is not sending His church into this world with the expectation
that you're going to have to convert everybody. Just preach
the gospel to them. For how long, O Lord? However
long it takes. Just preach the gospel to them.
But here she said, Boy, we ain't wrought anything. We've just
not wrought anything. And we're discouraged now. Discouraged
from beating on the rock. She got down. She got down. So in verses 17 and verse 18,
The church is down in herself. She's labored in vain. She said,
we've wrought no deliverance. Our hope has been disappointed.
Now here in verse 19, the Lord's going to break right in on this
church and change the whole way that she's thinking. He's sort of tired of watching
them look within themselves and being down in their mouth, so
He's going to break in and change the whole situation within. And from the very fact that He
does this, that He breaks in on them and changes the whole
subject. I mean, verse 19 doesn't even fit into the context, does
it? It just doesn't fit into the
context. He changes the whole subject of what they were thinking
about. And that shows us that their focus was in the wrong
place. What were they thinking about?
Did you notice the times when I read that it said, we, we,
we, we, we? Did you notice that? That's where
the focus was. That's why they got so discouraged.
We, we, we, we, we. Whatever the Lord has purposed
to do, we've got to bring it to pass. This depends upon we. And we just can't get it done.
And now we're discouraged. We seem to be so hopeless. We
have brought no deliverance. We're just in pain. Look at us. Look at us, how we're suffering
now. We can't do this. Anytime we focus on ourselves,
it never comes out right, does it? You may have a little problem
in your own heart, in your own personal life, You may have a
problem in your family. You may have a problem on your
job. I don't care what problem you have. If you're in trouble,
all you have to do for things to never get better is to focus
on yourself. Just keep on looking at yourself
and looking at your trouble, and it's probably going to get
worse. That's what they did. That's what they did. Wouldn't
it be awful? Wouldn't it be a burden that
you couldn't bear? If the Lord put on your shoulders the prosperity
of the church, the continuance of the church is up to you. How would you like a burden like
that? I'd be like Moses. Just kill me now, Lord. Just
kill me now. I can't carry on myself, let
alone be responsible for everybody else. And that's what the Lord
is going to show them. He's going to change this entire
focus and point it to what He is doing. What He's going to
do. And the surety of it. And how
they're going to react when He does it. And that's what verse
19 is about. And let's look at that quickly.
Look at this. Thy dead body shall live. Thy
dead men shall live together with my dead body, shall they
arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell
in the dust. Thy dead men shall live together
with my dead body, shall they arise. Now this is amazing. And one of the things I like
about this is you can look at God's Word and
Take one little verse and you can say, what does that mean?
And you can compare it to other places in the Scripture and you
can say, well, it means that. But then you can go on and say,
well, it means this too. And then you can go on and say,
yes, it means that too. One of the things I don't like,
and I don't know how Wayne and, well, I do know how Larry feels,
I don't know if I've talked to Wayne about it or not, but I
don't like the NIV. One of the reasons I don't like
the New International Version is they think that there can
be no doubt about what one verse teaches. They're going to bring
you to a conclusion of that verse no matter if that's what it means
or not. This is one thing I like about the King James Bible and
some of the other versions. Boy, it says study this for itself
and compare it to other scriptures and see if you can find out everything
it means. And there are three things that
I see here in this Scripture, three things. The first one is
union with Jesus Christ. The church, the body, the body
of the elect and their union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Thy
dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. Your dead men are going to live.
How are they going to live? Because they are in union with
Me. And when I rise, they are going
to rise together with Me. Now boy, we can get a lot of
things out of this. And the first thing is this.
The union of Jesus Christ with His elect is such a real and
vital union. He is such a great and real representative
of His elect people that everything He did, they did with Him. When He came to this world, they
came with Him. When He suffered upon the cross,
they were there with Him. And when He died, they died with
Him. When He was buried, they were buried with Him. And when
He arose from the dead, All His elect rose with Him. Now that's
union. I want you to hold this and turn
to Hosea. Look at Hosea. Hosea's Gospel. I call it sometimes. Look at
Hosea. Look at Hosea chapter 6. And look in verse 2. This is
a wonderful, wonderful passage, and I think we find this taught
in different places. Hosea chapter 6. Did you find
it? Look in verse 2. After two days
will He revive us, and in the third day He will raise us up,
and we shall live in His sight. The third day He shall raise
us up. Well, who was it rose the third
day? Jesus Christ, who else rose? All the elect rose in Him. Now, this ain't something you
feel. This has got to be something
that you believe from the Scriptures. One old-timer said this, what
Christ our Head did, He did not for Himself, but for His elect,
that the benefits of His life, His death, His resurrection,
His ascension, and His entrance into heaven might rebound to
them. There was such a union with Him
and them that all He did, they did with Him." Now that's a wonderful
truth, isn't it? That's a wonderful truth. We sang this old song sometime,
In My Beloved, and the third verse says this, In the Beloved
I went to the tree, and there in His person by faith I may
see infinite wrath rolling over His head and infinite grace because
He died in my stead." Union with Christ is such a real union that
all that the Father gave Him was with Him in all that He did. upon the cross. There are these
three things that speaks to this. Listen to Hebrews chapter 1 and
verse 3. When he was talking about the Lord Jesus coming,
he was in the very image of God. And it said when He had by Himself
purged our sins. When were all the sins of God's
elect purged? There at the cross. Now isn't
that amazing? They are at the cross. And listen
to Romans 4.25. He was delivered for our transgressions
and raised again for our justification. When He was raised and justified
from our sins, then all the body of God's elect was justified.
And listen to Hebrews chapter 6 verse 19. He is talking about
our hope. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within
the veil, where the forerunner is for us entered." He is for
us entered. He didn't enter there for Himself,
but for us. Everything He did, it was for
His people. for His people. Now this does
not deny the fall, does it? This does not deny the fall at
all. We fell. All the elect fell in Adam just
like everybody else. We were made sinners in Adam.
We were God-haters by nature. Our minds were carnal and wrathful
towards God by nature. We fell into condemnation by
nature when we were born by one man's offense. Judgment came
upon all men to condemnation. Here's the only difference between
God's elect and everybody else. They already had a representative
chosen out for them. And they were in union with Him,
given to Him. And He come and represented them
and took them to Himself and died for them, was buried for
them, arose for them, ascended and went into heaven for them.
for them. Now if you have trouble believing
this, let me give you four or five quick other things that
speak something like this. The Lord told Abraham before
Abraham ever had his child. It was years before he had Isaac.
And the Lord said, I have made thee a father of many nations. He hadn't even had a son yet.
I have already made you. In Genesis chapter 15 verse 18
it said this, In the same day the Lord made a covenant with
Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land. The seed did not even have a
being yet. And He said, It is theirs. I have given it to them.
And Isaiah chapter 53 verse 6, 700 years before Christ was born,
He said, I have laid on Him the iniquity of us all. I have already. He's not even born. I've already
laid it on Him. In verse 5 He said, by His stripes
we are healed. Not we're going to be healed,
but we are before we ever suffer. And while you and I are struggling
here this morning, struggling in our life, walking by faith,
going through all of our difficulties, doubts and fears, you know something? Every child of God here this
morning is already glorified. Romans 8, 29, and 30. That's
what He says in it. Those He predestinated, He called. Those He called, He justified.
And those He justified, He glorified. You say, Bruce, how in the world
can this be? How can God do this? Because He's not like us. He's
eternally different than you and I are. We're children and
people of space. We occupy one little space at
a time, don't we? One little space. Some of us
bigger space than others. But we occupy one space. God
is not like that. He's not limited to one space.
He said, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? He's
everywhere, isn't He? And you and I are here just for
a short period of time, just like a vapor that appears for
a little while. God is not that way. He inhabiteth eternity. He is in eternity past right
now. He fills all space of time right now. And you know something?
He is out in eternity already. Time has no effect upon Him. He fills eternity. He can call
those things which be not as though they Were. And that's what He's doing here.
We have risen with Christ. We have risen with Christ. In
Christ we've been justified when He was justified. In Christ we're
in heaven because that's where our head and representative is.
You know every aspect of salvation. The Lord just cuts the legs out
from under self-salvation. Did you know that? Every aspect
of salvation rings in our ears. You can't save yourself. You
can't save yourself. We go back to election. And what
does election tell people? That God has already chosen those
He's going to save. He's done put their names down
in the book of life. And nobody but them will be saved. That number will never be diminished
and it will never be increased. What does that do? Oh, man. Oh,
my soul. He's already determined. Did
He choose me? Did He pass by me? Oh, you mean
salvation is of the Lord? And what do you do? It strips
you, doesn't it? It puts you down at His feet
and says, Oh, Lord, is there mercy for me? I don't deserve
to be one. Is there mercy for me? And then
you come to this we've just looked at now. All the elect were in
such union with Christ. They've already raised. In Jesus
they raised and they were justified in Him. And boy, that makes you think, did
I raise in Him? Am I in union with Him? And it humbles you,
doesn't it? It humbles you. And then we come
to this next aspect of salvation back in our text when He makes
this statement. Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise." And we think about this. Our being raised experimentally. This was in the purpose of God
in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we come to our
being raised experimentally. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, that's just as important, is it not? That's just as important. It's critical in our experience
that we be raised with Christ, in our experience. You have He
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. If we want to know
that in union with Christ, when He went to the cross and to the
grave and when He arose and went to heaven, then here's the way
we find out. Has He quickened me now? Has
He given me life now? Here's what Paul said in Ephesians
chapter 2. He said, But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ. That's experience, isn't it?
You were dead, but now the Spirit has come to you, this living
Christ has spoke to you through His Gospel, and He's given you
life. That has to be experienced. That's
critical. The hour is coming in which the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. That's what He said here in the
text, isn't it? That's what he said. Thy dead men shall live. Together with my dead body shall
they arise. They shall. They shall live. You and I can't bring that to
pass. We can't even do that in ourselves, can we? But he said
they shall. The church says, Lord, we can't
do it. We've tried. Look at us. All we've done is
just worked up a bunch of pain, belly gas. We can't do anything.
He said, I know you can't do it. I'm going to do it. They shall live because I'm going
to speak to them. I'm going to give them life.
It's me. If they must believe, and they
must, then they shall believe because they shall live. If they
must repent, and they must, then they shall repent because they
shall live. Whatever means God has to use
to bring them to life, then He'll use it. Because He said, they
shall live. They shall live. That's wonderful,
isn't it? My mind's already getting feeling
better, aren't yours? I wonder when they read this.
Isaiah wrote this down. He gave it to the church and
they began to read it. And they began to look out of me. They
began to look outside self and their problems. And they said,
oh, look what He's doing. Thy dead men. There's going to
be a bunch of us. Yeah, we thought there were just
a few of us. And we're all in union one with another. He didn't
say those Gentiles were going to live. He said, it's your dead
men. They're one with you. The Old Testament saints and
the New Testament saints, they're one in Christ, aren't they? One
in Christ. All the elect are one in Christ. And they shall live. But one
more thing here, one more way we can look at this right quickly.
You're in verse 19. Thy dead men shall live, together
with my dead body shall they arise, awake and sing, ye that
dwell in the dust. The earth shall cast out her
dead." That's speaking of another resurrection too, isn't it? That's
speaking of a physical resurrection. So we have here a resurrection
in union with Christ. All the elect were in union with
Him when He arose, there arose. And then we have the resurrection
actually, experimentally. They hear the Gospel. They're
quickened by the Holy Spirit. And now we have that resurrection
at the last day. There's a resurrection, brothers
and sisters, coming. Salvation is a process, isn't
it? It's a process. You have Him choosing us way
back yonder in eternity. You have the Lord Jesus coming
and accomplishing our redemption. And then you have the Holy Spirit
coming and quickening the elect, and they're dying and they're
dying and they're dying and they're putting them back in the ground,
but the end is not yet. There's a resurrection coming.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, I'd be miserable,
wouldn't you? I would be envying all these
people that's having a big time in this world. Let us eat, drink,
and be merry, for tomorrow we die. No! There's coming a resurrection
of the just and the unjust. And that's what He's saying here.
Your dead bodies are going to rise together with My dead body. They're coming out of the dust.
And His resurrection was just the first fruits of them that
slept. And as sure as the Lord Jesus
raised, that's how sure that every dead body that belongs
to Christ in redeeming love is going to be raised. Greg read
it to us, didn't he? One of my favorite passages of
Scripture that our conversation, our citizenship is up in heaven.
And He's coming again, our Savior is coming from heaven and going
to change these vile bodies. There's going to be a lot of
saints still alive. They're mortal. And Paul said these mortals will
put on immortality. And all of those saints that's
dead, and most of them have decayed, and there's nothing there but
dust, they're going to put on incorruption. And then we're
all going to be caught up to be with Him in the air, and He's
going to change this foul body and fashion it like unto His
glorious body. He makes this word here, He said,
Thy dew is as the dew of herbs. I bet you if you've got an herb
garden, you go out and see what it looks like right now. You
ain't going out to get anything off of it to cook with. All it
is is an old bunch of stems sticking up out of the ground. But let
the dew fall on it this spring. Let the sun begin to warm it
up. What does it do? It gets new life, doesn't it?
New life. And that's what he's talking
about here. The old body has died and they've embalmed it
and put it back in the dust. But he said, I tell you this,
when the Master comes, He's going to change it and it's going to
live again. And what's going to happen? Then you're going
to sing. I was telling them about it at
the conference, about when we buried Mary Bell, Donny Bell's
wife. And then we'll forget this aspect
of that funeral. When we left the church to take
Mary down to the burier, we went down in the middle of nowhere.
I mean, you just keep going on this old dirt road, and you come
down, go down through the woods, and then there's a little field
down there full of graves. And that's where we went. And
it was starting to get dark, it was cold, the snow was on
the ground, and that whole field full of people. And they put
Mary in the ground, Brother Todd and I read the Scriptures and
had prayer, and then somebody began to lead the song. When
peace like a river, when peace like a river ascendeth my way,
when it comes to my heart, or when trials and burdens like
sea billows roll, whatever, my Lord, Thou hast taught me to
say, it is well, it is well with my soul. And as we were standing
there, it seemed like the bells of heaven was ringing. It was
just wonderful. And if it's that way when we
put a dear saint in the ground and we can sing then, what will
it be like when our Master comes and gets His saints out of the
ground? You better bet they'll sing.
They'll come from the graves singing, You were slain and You've
redeemed us to God by Thy blood. Oh, they'll sing. I tell you,
the Niagara Falls, they talk about how loud it is. It will
have nothing over the saints in that day, will it? Harmony,
loud harmony, and the universe will ring with joy and praise. Let's go on right quickly. Look
here now in verse 20. He told them all of this, and
as they begin to think about this, He tells them now, now,
In the light of all this, my people, instead of your complaining
and looking within yourself and being so subjective on everything,
come, my people, come! Come to me! Come! Enter thou unto thy chambers,
and shut thy doors about thee, and hide thyself, as it were,
just for a little moment, till the indignation be overpowered."
Charles Spurgeon gave six things here. He said, was the chambers. I thought this was very interesting.
If you want to read a good sermon on verse 20, Charles Spurgeon's
got a good one on it. But he gave six things, and I
thought, boy, that's probably what these chambers are, at least
these six things. But he said this, Come, my people,
enter unto thy chambers of divine power. Divine power. You are kept by the power of
God. Do you fear what's coming? Oh,
I imagine they were, because they knew the Assyrians were
coming. Do you fear ISIS? Do you fear the next attack?
Do you fear getting old and sick? Do you fear poverty? Do you fear
what the future may hold? Enter into this divine chamber
of power, God's power. And we don't have to fear anything,
do we? Because His power will keep you. He's the Almighty.
Mr. Spurgeon said, enter into thy
chambers of divine wisdom. Divine wisdom. We don't have
a lick of sense to it. Really, we don't. Because the
Scripture says we're blind. You know what your next spiritual
step may hold? You don't, do you? We talk about
taking one step at a time, and we can't even take one step at
a time. But what does He say? I will lead the blind by the
way that they know not. I'm going to make crooked things
straight. I'm going to make dark things plain. These things I'm
going to give to you and not forsake you, says the Lord. The
best thing we could do is enter into this chamber of divine wisdom
and say, Lord, lead me. I have no idea what's going on.
I just trust Your wisdom to lead me because You know everything.
Boy, that's a burden off, isn't it? But we don't know the way
to the city, brothers and sisters. But God has made him wisdom on
our behalf. I was talking, Joe and I, we
laughed about this last night, but there's a man, he's a veteran,
he's up in his, well, he's old. He's had all kinds of trouble
in his life. I got a letter from him, I don't know how many pages
it was, but he just had a car wreck. He tore his car all to
pieces and just busted his body all up back in the spring. And he was in a mess. I answered
him, told him, I said, Bill, I feel for you, brother. I'm
praying for you. The Lord will keep you. Well, he called me
last night and he just got over the first accident and he just
had another. And now he's in a body cast.
And he said his grandkids can't look at him because he's got
this helmet, this mask, and his helmet's attached to his body
cast where he can't move. And tomorrow he's going in to
have things put up his back, these rods put up his back. He's
broke four or five vertebrae. He's in a mess. I quoted this
verse to him. I said, Neil, enter into this
chamber. You're weak. You're helpless.
You don't know what's going to happen. Enter into this chamber
and hide yourself. He said, that's what I need.
That's what I need. That's what we need, isn't it? Spurgeon said this, enter into
this chamber of divine love, everlasting love. Boy, that's
a chamber, isn't it? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Tribulation? And He just names
everything, doesn't He? And then He said, in case I miss
something, no other creature can separate us from the love
of Christ. Brothers and sisters, if Christ
loves you today, He'll never stop loving you. He has this
everlasting love for His people. And that's what we look at, isn't
it? Enter into that chamber of everlasting love. And He said,
fourthly, divine faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. O
God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee. That's
a good chamber, isn't it? And Spurgeon said, Enter into
this chamber of divine salvation. Deuteronomy 29, 29. Happy art
thou, O Israel, who is likened unto thee, O people saved by
the Lord. And that will never change, will
it? Saved by the Lord. Enter into that. And lastly,
Spurgeon said, divine immutability. And I tell you, if the Lord wasn't
immutable, nothing else would matter. But he said, I am the
Lord. I change not. Therefore, your
sons of Jacob are not consumed. The sons of Jacob will never
be consumed because the Lord never changes. He never changes. And he said, enter this chamber
and shut the doors about you. Don't let mistrust get in there. Shut the door. Don't leave it
cracked for any doubts and fears to get in there. Shut it against
all of those. Shut it as tight as you can and
listen. Once you're in there, why come
out? There's no sense to even come
out. Just abide there. That's the problem we have, isn't
it? The Lord Jesus comes to us and He says, He told His disciples,
Abide in Me. If you abide in Me and My Word
abides in you, you're going to ask what you will and it will
be done. Abide in My commandments. Abide in My love. Just get in
this chamber and don't come out. The Lord's going to take care
of everything else, isn't He? That's the trouble with us. We've
got to get this straightened out. We've got to get this fixed.
We've got to get this to keep going. Everything's going to
fail. I went to Mexico one time with some preachers and we didn't
watch We didn't watch five minutes of TV, the only seven or eight
days we was gone. Never turned on the radio, never
had any kind of little gadget. We was gone all that time. And
I came back home and nothing had changed. The country was
still here. Everything was just like it was.
I don't know how that could happen since I wasn't here to worry
about it and take care of it. But that's what we think is.
And the Lord sums it up and He said, it's just a little while.
Just get in there for a little while. Stay in there. Rest yourselves
there in your chambers. There in your safe place. Hide
yourself. Because He said in verse 21,
there's something that's coming. And it's not this here. I was
reading a commentary the other night on this very verse. And
they said, well, this is talking about the seven-year tribulation.
The Lord's coming. in the seven-year tribulation.
No, it's worse than that. It's worse than that. The Lord
is coming out of His place. Why is He coming? He's coming
to get His people. Yes, He is. But He's coming to
do something else too, isn't He? He's coming to punish the
inhabitants of this earth. Why? For their iniquity. I tell you, this tells us the
Lord is holy, doesn't it? He's holy. Because He's not going
to let one sin go unpunished. This world thinks, well, He's
just a God of love. He's just a God that's so good.
And this generation knows nothing about the holiness of God. But
He's coming. And He's coming for this reason.
He's going to search out every foolish thought that's not been
washed. Every hateful word that's been
spoken against him and against his church that hasn't been repented
of. Every ungodly deed. He's coming
to search it all out. And he's going to punish it.
And he's going to punish the sinners because of it. Let's look at one more passage
and let me read it to you over in 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Look at this. 2 Thessalonians
chapter 1. This is a mystery in itself.
This is a mystery in itself, and I don't know how I would
believe this if it wasn't here in the Bible, because this is
so foreign to my mental concept that I can't relate to it. Look
what he says in 2 Thessalonians 1, in verse 7. What's a horror to the lost is
the hope of the believer. 2 Thessalonians 1, 7. And to
you who are troubled, rest with us. Come into your chambers and
rest with us. When the Lord Jesus shall be
revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, look at this,
in flame and fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and
that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall
be punished. I'm coming out of my place to
punish. the inhabitants of the earth, and look what their punishment
is, with everlasting destruction. Everlasting destruction. Now,
I can't relate to that and you can't either. With us, this is
utterly impossible. Shannon, in your shape that you're
in right now, there's no way that you can be punished under
the wrath of God forever. Your system, your body wouldn't
endure that. They couldn't. There's going to be some kind
of a change just as there's a change in the bodies of the saved that
they're going to be glorified. When the Lord raises these bodies
and they come creeping up to judgment, somewhere or another
they're going to have the capacity to suffer under the wrath of
God forever without any relief, suffer unimaginable. I can't understand that, brothers
and sisters, but that's what the Bible says. The same Lord
that says, Come unto everlasting life, unto everlasting glory,
says, Depart from me, ye cursed, unto everlasting fire. Those
two things are so. Heaven is eternal. Damnation
is eternal. And sin must be the most horrible
thing between the eternities that God says, I'm going to punish
it for all eternity. My wrath is going to fall upon
it and there will be no relief while the eternal ages roll. How awful, how black sin must
be. The cross tells us that. And
eternal punishment tells us that. And oh, this morning, if you
ain't in Him, if you're not in Christ, if you've not sought
Him for mercy, seeking this morning, you don't want nothing to do
with this absolute God outside of Christ. You want in a Christ
where sin has already been punished. That's where we want, isn't it?
That's where we want. So we've turned all of our attention
from ourselves, haven't we? Turned it all from ourselves.
Got it all from ourselves. And we focused it on Him and
what He's doing and what He's going to do. And boy, it's a
solemn thing, isn't it? It's solemn. It's solemn. Now
we're really burdened about souls, aren't we? Now we're really burdened
about our lives and how we live for His glory. God bless His Word. Let's pray.